Orlando Fringe review: 'Jitters'

THE ARTISTIC TYPE: A BLOG OF THEATER, ARTS AND CULTURE

“Do I miss anything about Boston?” Bernie O’Brien roared in the opening moments of his one-man show. “What? Do you want me to get weepy here?”

Don’t hold your breath for tear-filled memories. It’s really better that O’Brien’s tales of his Beantown roots remain anchored to the colorful characters that he has kept alive in his Fringe performances.

Last year, O’Brien’s memory-lane excursion to his beloved Forest Hills section of Boston took him to his family’s “3-Decker” homestead. His new show, “Jitters,” revolves around a return to an old watering hole to find more links between his past, present and future.

Back to that opening question: What O’Brien misses most about his former home is the time that he spent as “director of building and grounds” at a residential complex known as Beacon Village.

There, he learned the hard way that a tube of hemorrhoid cream shouldn’t be used on one’s face, even if it is an effective skin lotion. He also devised an inventive method of keeping trespassers from taking dips in the community’s pool.

It was lesson that “a few words, in the right place, can control a situation better than a fist,” he said. “When you raise your hand, you lose the fight.”

That message shows that O’Brien is learning to frame stories in a context that makes them more than outrageous yarns. At the show’s conclusion, he offered additional meaningful words, dedicating the performance to Orlando Sentinel nightlife columnist Kelly Fitzpatrick, who died last year.